On Wed, 26 May 2004, Andrew Ostrander wrote:

The essential difference between the 2 species of worms is that common
earthworms will not increase in numbers very fast. Start with 10 worms and
next year you may have 10 worms, whereas red worms increase in numbers
rapidly to the limit of their food. In my experience, and contrary to
another poster, earth worms eat anything, whereas the red worms are fussy
and won't eat tough things like tomato skins unless they are starving. I
gave up my worm bin about 5 years ago and last year there were still a few
red worms at the bottom of the compost heap. Some survived in the garden
soil in a spot where I worked in a lot of compost for 3 years, and I live
in zone 3.

Wow, that just seems plain odd. I haven't as much experience to back it
up, but everything I've read says exactly the opposite about earthworms
vs. red worms in regards to what they will eat. All the worm bin places
sell red worms. I did try putting some earthworms in kitchen (blender)
compost and they all died within a day or two. That was before I read
about having bedding and such for them to live in. I actually kinda felt
bad too.